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Normunds Rudevics

9th Congress of IRU in Riga, Latvia

On the sixteenth day of August in the year of 2015, the leading country delegates of the 9th IRU Congress in Riga, Latvia, as well as members of IRU Cabinet have signed the following memorandum:

MEMORANDUM
of common understanding and agreement on the following: To empower Roma community in the world, to protect its legal rights, raise its level of affiliation to the nationality as well as establish a valid instrument of statistics, we decided...

1. To continue with Roma passportisation programme;
To promote prosperity among Roma people around the world, eradicate poverty, discrimination as well as co-ordinate the help for those in need, we decided:
2. To continue and strengthen the co-operation with the International Committee of Red Cross as well as ombudsmen of world and European countries;To create real and functioning instrument of integration, to restore the law of kin among Roma community and promote national cultural heritage and traditions as well as raise the level of education, professional skills and income of Roma community, we decided:
3. To attract funding, sign agreements with local municipalities in order to start building first Villages of Employment; To establish more efficient and less bureaucratic model of governance of the IRU as organization, we decided:
4. To support the proposal from the member of IRU Cabinet, Normunds Rudevics, and make necessary changes in the IRU statutes;Roma was next to other ethnicities exposed to Holocaust during the World War II, but sadly there are lack of information and knowledge about that time and atrocities towards Roma people mainly from Nazi groups and soldiers. Therefore we decided:
5. To actively involve historians and continue to research the Holocaust of Roma during the World War II, create memorials, raise issue of compensation to living eyewitnesses as well as co-operate with EVZ Foundation in Berlin, Germany;
We also commonly decided:
6. To continue a unified social and economic and cultural programme of World Roma with a view to fulfil the will of the Romani people in a multinational cultural environment;
7. To clearly define legislation needs and seek assistance from the international organizations for legal protection, in line with the implementation of the defined goal (There is a possibility for the International Romani Union to become a cooperation partner for the EU Strategy 2020 – COM (2011) 173);
8. To coordinate and support the unified social and economic programme of World Roma from countries which are partners of the EU 2020 Strategy.
Signed by 48 delegates from 27 countries.
Link: http://roma.idebate.org/news-articles/memorandum-9th-iru-congress-held-riga-latvia

Village project

International Romani Union
Commune of 21st. century
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ROMA PASSPORT

Additional ID document (not valid for travel)
In 2009 International Romani Union has presented a document of identification named as "Roma passport". First of all "Roma passport" was created as a document confirming affiliation of his owner to the nation of Roma. Within the process of democratisation of the world’s society the last generations of national passports do not include any information in connection with nationality, social status and place of the residence of his owner.
Notification of the national belonging has an extremely importance for the Roma people because they doesn’t have their own territory (country) and it means that the international rules regarding passport legalisation for Roma are difficult to establish. The core of such difficulties is, in fact, that in the process of implementation of various programs directed to the support of Roma people it is necessary to take in consideration some following peculiarities: at first, it is necessary to confirm that the obtainer of material and humanitarian benefits within artistic, commercial and humanitarian support programs implemented by the world’s society for Roma people really belong to the nation of Roma. Secondly, due to existence of "Roma passport" any mistakes and discrepancies in distribution of material benefits within support programmes for Roma nation can be avoided. Thirdly, it's a self-evident truth that it is the right time to present the Roma people to the world not as an uncontrollable gang, but as a nation ready to take part in the process of world's development. By legalization through identification of ourselves we will change the world's attitude to us and thus we will confirm our readiness, proudly and respectfully, to take part in various activities within fields of sports, arts, culture and science. It is very important to understand that the owner of "Roma passport" has a full and legal rights and is eligible for real help and protection from The International Romani Union in various fields of social and economical life of world's society. It's necessary to remember that the legality of passport within Roma community may be determined only by the Congress of International Romani Union. Legality of passport within world's society may be achieved by negotiations with each country where Roma people are living,and by negotiations with United Nations Organisation, Council of Europe and European Parliament. At the moment the issue of "Roma passport" is very active and it is under consideration in all departments of world's political system. However, it is necessary to understand that matter of passport legalisation is connected with a considerable work which can not be completed in short time.
Here is the short technical information about "Roma passport":
"Roma passport" has 15 levels of protection which allows to consider it as very progressive and meets top level of protection; International Romani Union is the only organisation officially holding a licence of personalisation and distribution of "Roma passport". Besides to make the implementation of "Roma passport" more effective following steps were taken:

creation of the central international passport department,

creation of the branches of passport department in 17 different locations all around the world
creation of the group of passport specialists already actively working in field of passport system legalisation for Roma people.
I would like to turn your attention to couple of ideas: to change something in the world it is necessary to announce own ideas, it’s necessary to tirelessly work on idea’s distribution, finally, it is necessary to determine ourselves as the carrier of ideas. We have actually began our work with the matter of the recognition of our nation. It is extremely important for our existence and our passport is the one of the things that will help us to change our future for the best.

Let the people stop to guess if we are Roma or not, let them know, that we are Roma.
20 August 2015 - Sincerely yours, The President of IRU, Mr. Normunds Rudevics

Financial and social instrument

of uniting Roma community in the World
In order to make the first significant step, IRU has decided to create a financial and social instrument (working title: Roma National Bank) that will manage finances from differentsocial programs, attract external investments, accumulate deposits from Roma people in order to server meaningful purposes.
read the letter (PDF)
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INTERNATIONAL ROMANI UNION